A Grounded Theory Study of Living and Leading with Introversion

223 Pages·2016·2.25 MB·English

Antioch University
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2016
A Method to My Quietness: A Grounded Teory
Study of Living and Leading with Introversion
Leatrice Oram
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Oram, Leatrice, "A Method to My Quietness: A Grounded Teory Study of Living and Leading with Introversion" (2016).
Dissertations & Teses. 301.
htp://aura.antioch.edu/etds/301
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A METHOD TO MY QUIETNESS:
A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF
LIVING AND LEADING WITH INTROVERSION

LEATRICE ORAM

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to the Ph.D. in Leadership and Change Program
of Antioch University
in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

July 2016
This is to certify that the Dissertation entitled:
A METHOD TO MY QUIETNESS: A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF LIVING
AND LEADING WITH INTROVERTSION
prepared by

Leatrice Oram

is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in
Leadership and Change.

Approved by:

Elizabeth Holloway, Ph.D., Chair date

Laura Morgan Roberts, Ph.D., Committee Member date

Harriet Schwartz, Ph.D., Committee Member date

Sandie Turner, Ph.D., External Reader date
Copyright 2016 Leatrice Oram
All rights reserved
Acknowledgments
The last three years would have proved impossible if I had not had the support of many
dear friends, family, and colleagues. For all the times I had to be away, whether in Yellow
Springs or just in my study upstairs, I am gratefully indebted.
Thanks are due to Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That
Can’t Stop Talking (2012) for inspiring me and for liking my dweeby, fangirl posts on her
Facebook page. You will be one of the first recipients of this dissertation, like it or not.
Thanks go out to my colleagues at Antioch University New England for allowing me a
flexible schedule to get my work done and for the financial underwriting of my degree program.
Thank you to C13—my doctoral squad—for embracing my introverted self and for
opening my eyes time and time again; from you and with you, I will keep learning. To my
oenophile intervention team of Dani Chesson and Maria Dezenberg especially, you are
truth-tellers and crack-ups, muses and graces.
To my Seattle crew: William, Kara, Benjamin, and Julia Laverde, thank you for opening
your home to me, for all that sushi, and for making me a movie star.
To my coding team, Dr. Timothy Eklin and Dr. Aviva Cohen, thank you for your time
and expertise. And to my research partner, Dr. Roxanne Swogger, you softie, you big-brained,
laughing warrior. Saturdays at 9:30 will never be the same. We did it!
To the participants in this study: I am in awe of the ease and exactitude with which you
told me your stories and showed me your realities of being introverts and leaders. Without you,
this would not be, period. A s p e c i a l t h a n k s t o P 2 2 , withyo psroev idvede rthbe atiltl ea ocf u
this work.
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My gratitude goes out to the faculty and staff of the Antioch University PhD in
Leadership and Change. You have fostered a unique program of the most marvelous, evolving
design. You model what it means to be responsive, relational, and reflexive leaders and
scholars. For those who support our students’ research—Deb Baldwin, Cathy Boswell,
Vanessa Helgerson, and Emily DeMaria virtually and Abby Jones on my campus—you make our
small program very powerful. To Margaret Morgan and Leslee Creighton, thank you for all
you know and for your light touch. To Dr. Laurien Alexandre, extravert extraordinaire, you
saw where I was going long before I did. (By the way, it’s still all about the dog.)
To my committee: Dr. Laura Morgan Roberts, for introducing me to positive identity and
positive organizational scholarship; Dr. Harriet Schwartz who helped me discover discovering;
and Dr. Sandie Turner for her thoughtful, close reading, thank you all.
And finally to Dr. Elizabeth Holloway, you were combobulated when I was
discombobulated, funny and disarming when I was in a tizzy, and certain when I was unsure.
You were utterly practical, incisive, and direct. On every call, in every note, on every Google
Hangout, you grokked my ideas and you grokked me. In other words, you were my perfect
dissertation chair and I admire you deeply.
To my particular village—Wendy, Kelly, Kate, Cis, BeeP, Geeba, GeeBee, DIR, Audie,
Uncles Sarah and Gene, the Divine Miss M, Mel, El Miguel Grande, Impy, Grammy, Nick, Deb,
Dad, and Mike—your encouragement from near, far, here, there, and everywhere mattered so
very, very much.
And finally, to Andrew and Louisa, my own true loves, my steadfast, ardent hearts . . .
this is for you, first and last. I love you and our lives together. Let’s go play.

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Dedication

To Andrew Thomas Oram and Louisa Theodora Oram, for your enduring love and patience.

To my mom, Sabina Thorne Johnson, who would have a PhD herself if she hadn’t had her hands
full. I w i s h y o u w e r e h e r e w i t h m e s t i l l . Y o u w o u l d h a v e p u l l e d t h i s q u o t a t i o n f r o m y o u r
m i g h t y s t o r e ohf o mu seem:o r“yI n d e e d w h a t i s t h e r e t h a t d o e s n o t a p p e a r m a r v e l l o u s , w h e n i t
c o m e s t o o u r k n o w l e d g e t h e f i r s t t i m e ? H o w m a n ya st h qi nu gi tse, t o o , a r e l o o k e d u p o n
i m p o s s i b l e , u n t i l t h e y h a v e a c t u a l l y b e e n e f f e c t e d ? ” ( P l i n y t h e E l d e r , t r a n s . 1 8 5 5 )

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Abstract
Leadership scholar-practitioners must create a more sustainable, diverse, and equitable future,
fostering emergence and development of resilient, competent leaders, including those who may
have been previously overlooked. Leadership studies, particularly those situated in early trait
and behavior paradigms, have long privileged extraverted leaders as ideal. The scholarly
conversation is limited on introverted leaders; moreover, most of that literature depicts
introversion as either a pathological construct associated with shyness and social anxiety, or
includes introversion only by omission, as a state of deficit-of-extraversion. This study instead
began with positive inquiry, framing introversion as a positive individual difference, and
explored the lived experiences of introverted leaders. T h i s r e s e caor ac lhe sd cpee r s p e c t i v e s
f r o m p o s i t i v e p s y c h o l o g y , p o s i t i v e i d e n t i t y a t w o r k , a n d p o s i t i v e o r g a n i z a t i o n a l s c h o l a r s h i p t o
i n q u i r e i n t o i n t raos v ae rpsoi os int i v e l e a d e r s h i p c o cn os tnrsut cr ut .c tg i rvI oni su tnh dies d
t h e o r y s t u d y , l e a d e r si ewdah so i ni dt reonvt iefr t s ar ne pd o ewrd thinotro version typology on the
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Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI ) were asked to reflect on their experiences of introversion,
leadership identity development, and professional and personal pursuits. From the amassed
data emerged three theoretical propositions. First, enacting leadership has significant costs for
an introverted leader’s energy and identity. Second, an introverted leader must adopt a
conscious learning orientation to leadership development, including experimentation with
possible leader identities. Third, effective introverted leadership is dependent on understanding
the powerful intersectionality of introversion, relationship, and identity. This dissertation is
available in open access at AURA, http://aura.antioch.edu/ and OhioLink ETD Center,
https://etd.ohiolink.edu/etd

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Table of Contents
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................ iv
Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................v
List of Tables .............................................................................................................................. vii
List of Figures ............................................................................................................................ viii
Chapter I: Introduction .....................................................................................................................1
Statement of Purpose ....................................................................................................................2
Research Question ........................................................................................................................3
Situating the Research and the Researcher ..................................................................................4
Introversion: The Construct .........................................................................................................9
Significance to Theory and Practice ...........................................................................................15
Overview of the Dissertation ......................................................................................................15
Chapter II: Review of the Literature ..............................................................................................17
Examining the Construct of Introversion-Extraversion .............................................................18
Introversion-Extraversion in Leadership Studies .......................................................................20
Introversion-Extraversion in Wider Cultural and Global Perspectives ......................................25
Reframing Introversion as a Positive Leadership Construct ......................................................31
Positive Psychology ...............................................................................................................32
Positive Organizational Scholarship ......................................................................................34
Strengths-Based Approaches ..................................................................................................35
Identity Literature as the Foundation to Positive Identity at Work ............................................36
Introversion and Positive Identity ..............................................................................................40
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................44
Chapter III: Methodology ..............................................................................................................46
Introduction ................................................................................................................................46
Tracing the Path That Led to Choosing Constructivist Grounded Theory .............................47
Need for Qualitative Research in Management and Leadership Studies ...............................48
Origins of a Methodological Revolution: The Discovery of Grounded Theory ........................51
Methods in a Constructivist Grounded Theory Study ................................................................56
Ethical Concerns ........................................................................................................................75
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................78
Chapter IV: Findings ......................................................................................................................80
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Dimensional Analysis ................................................................................................................81
Where It All Happens: Contexts for the Core and Primary Dimensions ...............................83
Core Dimension: Reflecting and Reflexing ...........................................................................86
Primary Dimension: Observing and Listening .......................................................................95
Primary Dimension: Stretching ............................................................................................100
Primary Dimension: Engaging .............................................................................................103
Primary Dimension: Depleting .............................................................................................121
Primary Dimension: Retreating ............................................................................................124
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................128
Chapter V: Discussion and Implications ......................................................................................129
Overview ..................................................................................................................................129
What We Discovered Together: Co-Construction of Understanding and Meaning ................130
Models of Living and Leading With Introversion ...................................................................135
Living With Introversion: The Gibbous Moon ....................................................................138
Leading With Introversion: Imagining A Leadership Round Table ....................................139
Living and Leading With Introversion .................................................................................142
Theoretical Propositions ...........................................................................................................144
Theoretical Proposition One .................................................................................................145
Theoretical Proposition Two ................................................................................................149
Theoretical Proposition Three ..............................................................................................154
Implications for Practice ..........................................................................................................157
Limitations of the Study ...........................................................................................................161
Recommendations for Future Research ...................................................................................163
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................165
Appendix ......................................................................................................................................168
References ....................................................................................................................................191

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